Renewable Energy Index – March 2019
To assist the Australian community in understanding the role and contribution of renewable energy to meeting our energy needs while also providing an important source of employment and reducing pollution, Green Energy Markets produces the monthly Renewable Energy Index.
The index tracks the contribution of the renewable energy sector broken down by fuel type and state on a series of metrics that are intended to translate abstract concepts such as megawatts and tonnes of CO2 into concepts the community can understand and appreciate such as number of households powered, and number of cars’ pollution avoided.
Renewable energy construction jobs pass 20,000.
- Employment generated from large-scale renewable energy projects currently under construction has now passed the 20,000 job-years mark for the first time.
- Victoria is well ahead of other states with projects creating 7,580 job-years. This is 52% greater than Queensland with 4,974 job years and almost double NSW’s construction employment of 3,825 job years.
Rooftop solar on track to add 2,000 MW of capacity in 2019 as households and businesses embrace solar at record rates in response to persistently high power prices.
- Over the first quarter of 2019 Australia installed over 480 megawatts of small-scale rooftop capacity. This is 46% higher than the first quarter of last year and two and half times greater than the quarter 1 average across the past 4 years.
- This 480 megawatts of capacity will deliver a reduction in power bills of over $850 million
- over the next ten years based on current electricity prices.
- Installations have been rising across all states, but have surged in Victoria since the introduction of a $2,250 rebate. Victoria has traditionally been well behind both Queensland and NSW for installations but moved past them in quarter 1.
- Given the level of installations tend to rise towards the end of the year, it appears likely small-scale rooftop solar installations over 2019 will exceed 2,000 megawatts nationally.
- If the rate of installations in quarter 1 were to be maintained until the end of 2022, it would provide additional generation greater than that due to be lost from the closure of Liddell Power Station.
Source: greenmarkets.com.au
